The life of a mercenary
by Bond84Spivey
Summary: The story about someone in the mass effect universe that is not named Shepherd. Rated T for Language


**I do not own mass effect **

Riley woke up after another restless night of nightmares. He waited until he could catch his breath and picked himself off his bed. He looked around his cabin; it was rather large by military standards and was more a suite than an office. The best feature were the two windows, one on the side, and, one on the roof, from where he could see the stars as he slept.

Riley picked himself up off his bed and walked into the bathroom shower. He felt the terror of last nights dream leave as the cold water hit him. Riley shut off the shower and walked out of the shower and into his bathroom. In the mirror he saw his tired expression and grinned.

"Boy you have really let yourself go haven't you" he said aloud to himself. In truth he was only twenty four years old but already mercenary life was taking its toll on him. Bumps and scars from countless battles decorated his formerly handsome face. His hair that stopped at the tip of his eyebrows and covered his ears was brown but was shot with streaks of grey.

He sighed and dressed in his usual causal uniform of jeans and a black tee shirt. As he laced his worn shoes he called Morgan on his intercom.

"Morgan set a course for the Citadel"

"okedokey" she said back

He felt the ship budge slightly as it moved into a new direction.

"………..sir" he heard her add on his intercom.

He smiled and walked into the elevator to take him down to the medical bay.

* * *

As the ship slowly spiraled down into the deck of the ship Riley reminisced about how the ship came to be in his possession. He thought back to the summer of his graduation. He, like all of his friends, had gone down to the Alliance Recruiting Office back home on earth and joined the Marines. During his physical it was shown that Riley had been exposed to Element Zero and somehow had been one of the lucky ones and survived childhood. Though for some reason, still unbeknownst to him, he could never do more than set off sparks let alone pick someone up with his biotics even with the best upgrades from the Navy. After several fruitless attempts at becoming a biotic he was made a sent to a new unit and trained as an Engineer for Star Ships.

Riley's grip on the elevator pole tightened as he remembered what happened next. During a simple patrol around the Hourglass Nebula his ship was attacked by Batarian pirates. Riley could only remember the explosions that came too quick to respond too and the blast that knocked him unconscious. The captain of the ship must have made an emergency landing because when he woke up he was inside the ship on the planet Daratar. He had dusted himself off and slowly walked down the ship. Every one of his friends was either dead or gone from the ship probably taken by the pirates. The pirate must have thought he had been dead when they checked inside. Outside he heard the unmistakable sound of a shuttle.

_The Pirates were coming back to finish the job _

He looked at the body of one of his fallen comrades and found his shotgun. With fire in his eyes he waited for the first person to open the door and when he saw who it was he unleashed a hell upon every one of them.

Eventually an Emergency distress beacon was picked up by a merchant vessel and he was rescued. They found him sitting in the mess hall alone with the overheated shotgun still in his hand. He was promoted and given a couple of medals and then forgotten about. He was fine with that. He didn't want attention for what happened. Every night he could see the faces of his friends looking at him while he slept. He was also given several sessions with a counselor that tried to explain to him why he felt the way he felt. The words Survivors guilt and PTSD went over him and he was finally quietly discharged from the Navy. During another bout with depression he found himself on Omega. He was drinking at some sleazy bar when he saw a brunnete woman in the corner of eye being accosted by a very dirty looking man.

"Just one drink" said the greasy man

"I'm fine thanks" she said coolly

"Come on baby" the man insisted putting his hand on her shoulder

In one fluid motion that even Riley found surprising, the woman grabbed the man's arm and flung him over the bar.

"You don't get to touch me….ever" said the woman.

Riley had to meet her. He walked up to her and hesitantly asked her name.

"The name's Morgan" she said happily.

Morgan was five foot four and barley weighed hundred pounds. She had long hair that she usually kept in a ponytail.

Riley smiled as he remembered there first meeting.

This is when he learned she was a c-sec pilot or had been a C-Sec pilot. It was talking to her that finally gave him new direction. He had been on Omega far too long and had seen the worst people that the Milky Way had to offer. He knew that the Alliance was probably going to go to war with the Batarians and C-Sec was too concered with which form to sign when they arrest somebody.

Morgan had quit C-Sec for the exact reason so many others had. She had been in route to contact Cerberus and become a pilot for them. Instead Riley talked her into coming with him and she joined his "crew"

Riley remembered how each and every one of his Shipmates came to be on board. Whether it be Thanatos who had tried to kill him first, Thanatos was given a contract by the Blue Suns to take him out. Luckily for Riley he saw the muzzle flare and was able to dive into cover. After a fifteen minute firefight Thanatos surrenedered because civilians had come to watch and he was afraid of hitting one. Riley recruited him iimmeditaly after.

Riley thought about Trelyn who ran a store on Omega. When Riley got there he saw a couple of krogan who apparently didn't like his deals. Before Riley could help Trelyn fired three shots and killed both of them. Riley watched in amazement as his assistant dragged them out of the store like this happened all the time.

Eventually he had a big enough Crew that he could go wanted to leave Omega he booked passage on a crapy merchant ship and hoped for some good fortune.

In the Local Cluster his luck finally came from ironically the Systems Alliance. They had sent out a distress call from the Moon. Riley paid the merchants with the last couple of Credits he had to wait while he and his crew checked it out. As they landed they saw four turrets the size of buildings going haywire and shooting in every had Thanatos cover him while he and Trelyn disabled the turrets using there Omni-tools.

"Hey Riley" he heard on his headset

"Yeah" he said back to the merchants

"You might want to look at this" The merchant had said and sent him the coordinates of a place about a mile north of them

"Alright thanks"

They walked to the place sent to him and were amazed at what they saw. The turrets had apparently shot down an Alliance Ship investigating the disturbance.

"Is it Salvagable" Riley asked Trelyn

"Amazingly yes, the hull is stil entact, there is power in the engines, there is some minor structural damage but we can fix those ourselves" said Trelyn running a diagnostic on the battered ship.

Riley had the merchants pick up the ship while he and his team stripped the turrets for parts. Eventually they found a remote planet and set up shop there.

Within a year the SSV Houston was ready to fly.

* * *

The door to the elevator opened slowly and Riley ambled out tiredly. He walked into the medical bay and saw Doctor B working on his new asari friend. Doctor B was amazingly a Batarian and also one of the crabbiest people Riley had ever met.

"Hey Doc" Riley said cheerfully

He merly grunted in response as he continued working.

"So how is she" Riley said pointing to the unconscious asari.

He had been tasked with what he had thought had been a simple job. Pop in take the Blood Packs Asari prisoner and leave. How hard could it be to outsmart krogan? they had barley gotten out alive.

"……She had multiple wounds and burn marks on her wrist from where she was tied up…… I have healed all those but I think it was more mental pain then physical pain that put her into whatever this is." Doctor B said under his breath as he continued to work on the unconsicious women.

"Sir we will be at the Citadel in ETA thirty mintues" Morgan said over the intercom

"So can you wake her up before then" Riley asked hopefully

"….. Doubtful I think she is in some kind of asari preservation thing"

"Well she better wake up because I am not dragging an unconsicuos asari all around the citadel!"

"You won't have to" A dreamy voice said from the table

The beautiful asari picked herself up from the table and walked toward Riley.

"Were you the one who saved me" she asked quitley

"From the Krogan yes, everything else goes to Doc here" Riley said pointing at Doctor B.

"Thank you I am sure my mother will pay both of you great deals for helping me. She was the one who gave you the contract mercenary's"

"How do you know we are mercenary's" Riley questioned

"There are many ways but most poignant evidence is right here in front of me, she said looking at him, you seem perpetually tired and are covered in scars. I assumed you were either a soldier or a mercenary and only a mercenary could take me out of a krogan ship. You all have my thanks"

"Go and make yourself comfortable" he told her nodding in the diretion of the elavator

"I thank you for rescuing me" she said again as she curtisied and walked into the elevator.

Later the Houston landed in the docking bay of the citadel and there he met with the benefactor of the contract who apparently was indeed the asari's mother

"Oh thank you a thousand times thank you" the older asari cried as she embraced her daughter

He smiled at the reunion of mother and daughter before disembarking. With the credits in there account everyone on the Houston was itching to spend some money.

After hearing another staged conversation about how a good captain would let them spend there hard earned credits Riley smiled and pressed his intercom button,

"Morgan set a course for Illium"

* * *

******Well there you go for some good old fashioned back story **


End file.
